Victory in the rain at Caythorpe gets Cuckney back on track

After losing to likely title rivals Kimberley two weeks ago and then losing last weekend to the weather, assistant captain Richard Bostock was delighted to win Saturday's rain-affected game.

Cuckney made 229-6 in their 50 overs, Nicholas Keast with 36, Tom Ullyott 34 and Joseph Hayes 31.

James Oldham hit 43 in reply as Caythorpe ended on 129-8 from 42 overs, short of a revised target of 205 as rain ended play.

On the win, Bostock said: “It certainly puts us in a better mindset, then we found out that Kimberley had been affected by the rain and weren't able to get to their target. It really gave us a boost.

“It puts us into a better place and a positive outlook for the rest of the season.

“We went knowing there was weather around and fully expecting the games to be affected throughout the league.

“But we turned up positive as we knew we needed to get back on the horse after having a week off and losing the week before.

“We lost the toss and got inserted, but we really applied ourselves well on the scorecard and all batters reached double figures with people getting into 20s and 30s.”

He added: “Sometimes at Caythorpe it's one of those decks where you are never quite in and you know you've always got a ball with your name on it.

“So to get 20s and 30s really contributed to the score and you know that anything 200+ at Caythorpe is a really competitive score.

“We had breaks for rain, which delayed things. But everyone stayed focused and it was a good batting display.

“Then with the ball I think we really put it in the right areas from ball one, and we took key wickets at key times. We really applied ourselves with the ball.”

Sunday's highly-anticipated ECB National Club Championship clash at Papplewick & Linby was rained off and will now take place this Sunday (1pm).

“We're looking forward to it – we really enjoy the national competition,” said Bostock.

“As always the league is massive for us and we work hard for it, it's what you want to win. But there is nothing to rival the feeling of going to an away game in the national cup.

“We have been fortunate enough to do quite well in these games. We've been to the quarter-finals twice but never able to get over that line. It would be nice to get to a final.”

Both Cuckney and Papplewick are due to have players involved in a NPL v Trent Bridge game on Sunday at Caythorpe, and Bostock said: “We really want to give the lads an opportunity to play for the Premier League but we all understand how important club stuff is to us.

“It's a discussion we need to have with the league and with individual players. We want to make sure everyone is happy. “From a selfish point of view we want them to play for us.”

This weekend spectators are welcome back as Cuckney take on Caythorpe again at home on Friday (6pm) in the first round of the ECB National Club Twenty20 before welcoming Clifton in the NPL on Saturday (11.30am).

“We have a massive weekend of cricket ahead,” said Bostock.

“We've not played Clifton for a few years so we're not sure what they've got. They do have a couple of familiar faces from previous but they have a lot of new signings.

“They are doing pretty well in the league and sat on the same points as us.

“We would hope we're strong enough to win, given they've just come up, but they are an unknown quantity to us right now and we'll take them on merit.

On Friday's clash, he added: “We might have beaten Caythorpe on Saturday but Twenty20 is a very different game.”